Restricted to the rank of the second opposition party after the end of the election campaign, the CAQ consciously recalled its promise to the liberal government. We have major traffic problems. We’re talking about decisions that will be made in 10 years. A feasibility study is required. You were promised, will you keep your commitment? asked Christian Dubé, then MP for Lévis, in the plenary chamber, just a few weeks after the election.
That was just the beginning of a long, very long line of questions, excursions, pledges and statements from CAQ MPs about the third link. Of all, Éric Caire was particularly illustrated by his zeal for the task, which multiplied the attacks against the elected Liberals that succeeded one another at the head of the Ministry of Transport.
The CAQ had not yet become the powerful political force it is today. It was more like the time when we made arrows out of random wood. Especially after their defeat in the Chauveau by-election, the party seemed poised to do whatever it took to win back the Quebec electorate. We then drank a lot of what was said on the capital’s radio stations, which were generally very positive for the project. The promises weren’t always well put together.
A self inflicted wound
François Legault formally committed as early as spring 2017: the CAQ would set up a third link, even if we don’t yet know all the variables in the equation. It doesn’t have to be an empty promise. The people of Quebec are tired of being fooled, declared the rising prime minister, firing an arrow at the PLQ.
In short, the CAQ itself made the third link in large part the essential issue it has become today. Without the struggle of some of its members in the opposition, the topic would never have taken up so much space in recent years. As such, if the turn he is making now shatters his faction or causes him to lose support, François Legault will only have himself to blame.
The Quebec-Lévis tunnel project has had many versions since the CAQ’s election in 2018.
Photo: Radio Canada
Only when they came to power did the CAQ strategists take stock of their position. A long period of adjustment has begun. We initially ruled out the idea of a tunnel near the Île d’Orléans to encourage a city-to-city connection with multiple stops for public transport users. Then we checked the number of tubes, the number of channels and the budgets across the different variations. That Québec Solidaire is now willing to support the project shows how much it has changed!
Deeper Transformations
These changes came at a time when the CAQ itself was embarking on a deeper transformation. Already in early 2018, the prospect of taking power made the party more cautious. The election results then changed the composition of his group significantly. The old guard around the ADQ saw their influence dwindle, while new players – we are thinking among others of the members of the current business trio – now gained the upper hand.
Over time we have smoothed the edges and set aside the more controversial positions of the past. Those who had expected the CAQ to cut public spending were surprised or relieved, as the case may be, to find that it ruled more centrally. The protection of the environment, which the party ignored during the 2018 campaign, has even become one of the five great values of the CAQ, which François Legault likes to and regularly repeats.
Of all previous utterances, however, the commitment to building a third link was the hardest to forget. Getting rid of his illusions will have taken longer, even if elected officials and city councilors expressed doubts behind closed microphones immediately after the 2018 election.
Bernard Drainville made a strong statement of faith in the Third Link project during the last election campaign.
Photo: Radio Canada / Mathieu Potvin
Up until the last election, supporting the project remained a must for any candidate aspiring to be elected under the CAQ banner. No one has forgotten the contortions Caroline St-Hilaire went through to explain that her thinking as a former columnist had evolved when she became a CAQ nominee. However, it was Bernard Drainville who won the award for Best Creed in the Third Link with his famous Let go with the GHGs!
Éric Duhaime is certainly exaggerating when he speaks of the CAQ as the GND government, alluding to the initials of the Québec solidaire co-speaker, but he is not mistaken when he points out that the CAQ today is not really the same as the CAQ of the originally led the battle for the Third Link in the mid-2010s.
Time has passed, the Force has done its work, and the CAQ is now much more circumspect in its commitments. It is not surprising that influential ministers did not want to be associated with a controversial project whose costs were threatening to explode.
Through the various incarnations of the third link, the transformation of the party has in a certain way taken place. In a way, the highway version of the project was the last remnant of a bygone era for the CAQ.